Right time to build?

[mcgriffo]

I wondered if anyone had opinions and advice on the "right time to build"? I have been saving steadily towards being able to build a PC that is as a high-end gaming machine as possible ("best" components available on the market
at the time of building) and would probably be salvaging nothing from my creaky P4 2.8GHz which is coming up for 4 years old. The earliest I would be building would be Spring 2007 and have estimated a £2,500 (British) budget. (Please let me know if I'm a bit low to achieve a "dream" PC). After the budget, the main dilemma is the timing of the build. I know Direct X 10 is on the way, and the number of cores within processors soon to expand again.

I also appreciate that there may never be a "right time" (or a "wrong" one for that matter) as things will always be changing and improving. I suppose I just want to feel that the PC is top-end for as long as possible and future proofed as much as possible. I also realise that budget may be subjective as I'm sure someone could spec me something from NASA for £100m !!! I suppose I want someone to say "Tell you what - just wait a bit longer until Autumn 2007 for xxxxxxxxx and take the budget up to £2,800 to be able to get xxxxxxxxx". I would really appreciate any thoughts.

 

[easyrider]

Welcome to the forums.

You are right there is never a right time to build.

But you do not have to spend thousands to get a great pc with core 2 duo being on the scene.

Whats your budget?

2500?

You really dont need to spend this amount.

DX 10 8800 GTS can be had for 299 so I would say dont wait and buy now.

Anyone suggesting to wait does not know what they are talking about.

 

[kmistry]

I agree, its silly to keep waiting, if you have the money now then buy, there will ALWAYS be something new around the corner. The only reason people weren't upgrading recently was because of the introduction of DX10, but since the release of the 8800GTX/GTS this hasn't become a problem. I also agree that 2500 is a lot of money to spend, you will be able to get a really good rig for under 2000, saving you 500 on something else!

Kiz

 

[mcgriffo]

Thanks to both of you for the reply and the advice.

I was only reading recently how the arrival of quad-core won't really improve gaming for a long time to come as so few games actually take advantage of any sort of hyper/multi threading. This would make the dual core CPUs all you'd need for quite a while I imagine.

I'll really take on board your thoughts on the budget and put the extra elsewhere like you suggested!

 

[Captain Fizz]

Yep - I spent £2k on a PC 6 months ago and it has been splendid.
That's about the max you need to spend IMHO.

What I would spend the extra £500 on is an amp and a pair of speakers.
Get some decent sound out of the PC too instead of PC speakers.
(If you have a decent stereo then just use it)

4.1, 5.1 etc is good, but 2 x decent speakers > 10 carp speakers.

With the current hardware, and HDD prices etc - Cant see a better tme to buy.